COVID-19 is unique in that it is spread through everyday contact with other people. Therefore, social protective measures, beyond medical protective measures, such as social distancing, lockdowns, border closures, and human tracing are initiated to control the spread of COVID-19. Such responses have produced secondary issues such as drastic changes in people’s way of life and work, housing instability, economic shock, and privacy issues. This paper examines the four domains of urban and regional issues related to the secondary impact of COVID-19, including (1) social distancing, urban structure, community, and density; (2) housing affordability; (3) lockdowns, border closures, reshoring, and regional economic recovery; and (4) smart city technology, contact tracing, and privacy. The following six recommendations have been proposed. First, institutional and cultural factors are more important than urban features, such as population density. To handle infectious diseases such as COVID-19, it is important to build systems, technology, infrastructure, and urban structures that can strengthen resilience instead of implementing a directionless policy of dispersion. Second, it is necessary to improve accessibility to essential services at the community level, including medical facilities and food supply. Third, continuous effort should be made to boost housing affordability, as it is directly related to people’s basic life. Fourth, measures are needed to protect those people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. There is also the need to restore global trade and economic relations. Fifth, since data technology-based COVID-19 control raises the human tracing and privacy issue, we must ensure the principles of privacy management, such as transparency and voluntary consent, are being met. Finally, since COVID-19 is spread through people, individuals may become anxious and fearful of others without grounds; this may increase prejudice and hatred, including xenophobia. Significant social effort is needed to overcome such ill-defined anxiety and fear and maintain a healthy civil society.

(2020). Smart city technologies for pandemic control without lockdown. International Journal of Urban Sciences. Ahead of Print.

Providing adequate public rental housing (PRH) of a decent quality at a desirable location is a major challenge in many cities. Often, a prominent opponent of PRH development is its host community, driven by a belief that PRH depreciates nearby property values. While this is a persistent issue in many cities around the world, this study proposed a new approach to assessing the impact of PRH on nearby property value. This study utilized a machine learning technique called long short-term memory (LSTM) to construct a set of housing price prediction models based on 547,740 apartment transaction records from the city of Busan, South Korea. A set of apartment characteristics and proximity measures to PRH were included in the modeling process. Four geographic boundaries were analyzed: The entire region of Busan, all neighborhoods of PRH, the neighborhoods of PRH in the “favorable,” and the “less favorable” local housing market. The study produced accurate and reliable price predictions, which indicated that the proximity to PRH has a meaningful impact on nearby housing prices both at the city and the neighborhood level. The approach taken by the study can facilitate improved decision making for future PRH policies and programs.

Using recent residential redevelopment projects in South Korea, relocation decisions were investigated with respect to social justice, social capital, and various urban spatial attributes at individual, neighborhood, and community levels. Drawing on previous social justice theory, a spatial multilevel analysis using both primary and secondary data was employed to measure community attributes that reflected social justice, social capital, social services, environmental, and economic characteristics. Results suggest that relationships with neighbors in the redevelopment project lead to a lower likelihood of relocation. These empirical findings are intended to inform policy makers interested in the perspectives of residents who are potentially displaced by public and private redevelopment efforts.